Chemical compounds included in assessments

NAWQA assessments focus on chemical compounds that have well-established methods of investigation. It is not financially or technically feasible to assess all the contaminants in our Nation’s waters. In general, the NAWQA Program investigates those pesticides, nutrients, volatile organic compounds, and metals that have been or are currently used commonly in agricultural and urban areas across the Nation. Parameter codes are provided, which can be used to retrieve data from the NAWQA datawarehouse or the USGS NWISWeb